As we convene this week in Chicago for the 2nd annual Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF), about 1,500 industry leaders worldwide are laser focused on capturing the $8 trillion economic opportunity of IoT. We launched the first annual IoTWF in Barcelona one year ago, and the industry has since progressed at breakneck speed.

A Forbes headline two months ago summed up the buzz: “It’s Official: The Internet of Things Takes Over Big Data as the Most Hyped Technology,” following the release of a Gartner Hype Cycle report. This is supported by the fact that media mentions of IoT have tripled since 2013 to more than 45,000 so far this year. Read More »

Tremendous new opportunities are being created for technology vendors and service providers as cities around the world look to build out smart cities to reduce municipal costs, tap new sources of revenue, and improve the overall quality of urban life. The previous blog (Smart Cities Are a $7.5 Billion Annual Opportunity for Technology Providers) described all of the essential requirements of the smart city architecture and quantified the great opportunities for technology vendors and partners to help to create and operate these digitally smart cities of the future. The last question to address is what are the specific opportunities for SPs and where should they play to extract the most value from the deployment of smart cities?

The potential revenue opportunities available to SPs depend upon the strategic fit to their business. Specifically, we evaluated the opportunities across three strategic fit criteria:

Core Business – How closely is the solution or service aligned with the SP’s core business (e.g., using existing assets, leveraging current business operations and expertise, in regional footprint)

Stretch – To what extent would new investments or operations be required to deliver the solution or service (e.g., Capex for new assets, creation of new business operations, acquisition of new expertise, out of region play)

Deal Dependent – To what extent would the nature of the deal and the governance structure influence the potential revenues available? (e.g., vendor or lead, city investment or PPP)

Assessing the smart city revenue opportunities across these criteria reveals a number of strategic options for how SPs can think about approaching the smart city opportunity: Read More »

Cities are growing rapidly, stressing infrastructure and essential services while budgets remain tight. As the growth engines of the global economy, cities are competing with each other to achieve greater quality of life for their citizens, to attract new businesses and to achieve sustainability goals. Imagine safer city and neighborhood streets, fewer traffic jams, cleaner air and quicker commutes in these rapid growth centers. These are some of the benefits that residents of cities deploying AGT International and Cisco’s joint city solutions can expect.

Today, Cisco announced new and updated Connected Safety and Security solutions along with a group of ecosystem partnerships, including AGT, that remedy the challenges of easily managing, securing and safeguarding assets such as people, property and things in remote sites. Cisco is partnering with industry-leading companies, such as AGT, to leverage the new capabilities and benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT), provide customers with highly secure, interoperable solutions and services in order to take advantage of the Internet of Everything (IoE), and help businesses and governments make money, save money and provide enhanced safety. Read More »

Our digitising India vision is one of the most exciting initiatives the country has embraced to leapfrog us to the 21st century. What was once a visionary notion is now the new normal: technology is really as essential as the three utilities: water, gas, and electricity. Our government leaders have made it clear that broadband highways are as important as national highways. Through the government’s Digital India program, infrastructure will be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services will be on demand and citizens will be digitally empowered. It is this Digital India vision that inspired us to unveil our Cisco Smart City.

As part of the inauguration of the Cisco Smart City, we demonstrated the possibilities of the government’s Digital India program where infrastructure would be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services would be on demand and citizens would be digitally empowered. Over 150 partners and customers joined us at the launch as we showcased how our 2.6 million square foot campus-as-a-city, powered by the Internet of Everything, enables thousands of Cisco employees to work, play and learn with the physical network infrastructure securely connected to devices such as sensors, information access points and mobile devices. We showcased our latest solutions in such as Smart Buildings, Remote Expert, Connected Learning, Smart Parking and Smart Work Spaces.

Cities around the globe are beginning to build out new digital services such as smart lighting, traffic, waste management and data analytics to reduce costs, tap new sources of revenue, create new innovation business districts and improve the overall quality of urban life. The previous blog (“How to Make Money from Smart Cities”) identified the great opportunities for the technology vendors and partners to help to create and operate these digitally smart cities of the future.

The Cisco Smart City Business Architecture identifies a set of essential requirements in a number of different business layers essential for delivering and operating a successful smart city initiative. In order to measure this opportunity, we developed a detailed economic model based on the business architecture. We chose Seattle in the USA as a representative city, with roughly 3 million people in the greater metropolitan area, to quantify the potential opportunity available to technology providers. Our model smart city initiative included covering 30 per cent of the city area with a Wi-Fi network and four key smart city solutions – traffic incident management, smart lighting, smart parking, safety & security. In addition, we included the technology platforms, operational capabilities, and services in the Smart City Business Architecture. All of the services and solutions were modeled as managed services, generating an annual revenue stream to the provider. Read More »

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